THOUSANDS of Billy Connolly fans were fuming yesterday after tickets for the comic’s upcoming tour sold out within minutes – only to be resold online by ticket touts.

Tickets for the Big Yin’s High Horse Tour went on sale at 9am, but the majority of fans missed out in a frantic scramble for seats.

Fury erupted as booking websites crashed and tickets emerged hours later on unofficial websites with price tags of hundreds of pounds each.

Much of the anger was directed at main seller Ticketmaster for selling tickets through its partner websites at grossly inflated prices.

Touts sold tickets on sister site GetMeIn.com, which deals with the resale and exchange of purchased tickets, for as much as £440.

Meanwhile StubHub, a subsidiary of auction site eBay, priced tickets at more than six times their face value.

Tickets for a stalls seat in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, which sold originally for £33, were £193.52 on the website.

The venue’s own website crashed early in the morning because of the high volume of requests.

Fan Ewan Campbell took to Twitter to vent his frustration, saying: “Ticketmaster offering tickets to see Billy Connolly at £129 EACH instead of £33. Commonwealth Games farce again.”

Fans started queueing at 4am yesterday for Connolly’s appearances in Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow in September and October

Scott Reid had better luck, saying: “Website crashed, gave up and went to the actual box office, queued for an hour, but managed to get Billy Connolly tickets, yes!”

Fans started queueing at 4am yesterday for Connolly’s appearances in Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow in September and October. The 71-year-old was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but vowed to continue performing on stage.

Alaine Stephen, 47, from Rathen, near Fraserburgh, set off at 2.30am to be first in the queue at Aberdeen Music Hall.

She said: “I had tickets for the last time he was in Aberdeen, but through work commitments I gave them to my nephew. So there was no way I was going to miss out this time.”

The tour begins with two nights at Aberdeen Music Hall on September 29 and 30.

Two extra Glasgow dates for the tour have been announced – for the SECC Clyde Auditorium on October 29 and 30.